WHO has not watched a typical cowboys-and-Indians film? People the world over have heard of Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill, and the Lone Ranger and of the Indians Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Chief Joseph, as well as many others. But just how authentic have Hollywood's renderings been? And how evenhanded have their portrayals of the Indians been? The story of the conquest of the Native North Americans (Indians) by Europeans raises questions.* Have the history books dealt the Indians a fair hand? Are there any lessons to be learned about greed, oppression, racism, and atrocities? What is the true story of the so-called cowboys and Indians?
In the year 1876, medicine man Sitting Bull of the Lakota (one of the three main divisions of the Sioux) was a leader at the famous battle of the Little Bighorn River, in Montana. With 650 soldiers, Lieutenant Colonel "Long Hair" Custer thought he could easily defeat 1,000 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. This was a gross miscalculation. He was facing probably the largest group of Native American warriors ever assembled-about 3,000. Custer split his 7th Cavalry Regiment into three groups. Without waiting for support from the other two, his group attacked what he thought would be a vulnerable part of the Indian camp. Led by headmen Crazy Horse, Gall, and Sitting Bull, the Indians wiped out Custer and his unit of some 225 soldiers. It was a temporary victory for the Indian nations but a bitter defeat for the U.S. Army. However, terrible revenge was only 14 years away.
Eventually, Sitting Bull surrendered, having been promised a pardon. Instead, he was confined for a time at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory. In his later years, he appeared in public in Buffalo Bill's Wild West traveling show. The once illustrious leader had become a mere shadow of the influential medicine man he used to be. In 1890, Sitting Bull (Lakota name, Tatanka Iyotake) was shot to death by Indian police officers who had been sent to arrest him. His killers were Sioux "Metal Breasts" (police-badge holders), Lieutenant Bull Head and Sergeant Red Tomahawk.
In that same year, Indian resistance to the white man's dominance was finally broken at the massacre of Wounded Knee Creek on the American Great Plains. There, about 320 fleeing Sioux men, women, and children were killed by federal troops and their Hotchkiss rapid-fire cannons. The soldiers boasted that this was their vengeance for the slaughter of their comrades, Custer and his men, on the ridges overlooking the Little Bighorn River. Thus ended over 200 years of sporadic wars and skirmishes between the invading American settlers and the besieged resident tribes.
But how did Native Americans get established in North America in the first place? What kind of life-style did they have before the white man first set foot in North America?# What led to their final defeat and subjection? And what is the present situation of the Indians in a country now dominated by the descendants of the early European immigrants? These and other questions will be discussed in the articles that follow.
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* While the term "Native American" is now preferred by some, "Indian" is also still commonly used in many sources. We will be using these terms interchangeably. "Indian" is the misnomer given to the natives by Columbus, who thought that he had reached India when he landed in what is now known as the West Indies.
Picture Credit: Indian: Artwork based on photograph by Edward S. Curtis
WHAT did we call ourselves before Columbus came? . . . In every single tribe, even today, when you translate the word that we each had for ourselves, without knowledge of each other, it was always something that translated to basically the same thing. In our language [Narragansett] it's Ninuog, or the people [in Navajo, Diné], the human beings. That's what we called ourselves. So when the [European] pilgrims arrived here, we knew who we were, but we didn't know who they were. So we called them Awaunageesuck, or the strangers, because they were the ones who were alien, they were the ones that we didn't know, but we knew each other. And we were the human beings."-Tall Oak, Narragansett tribe.
Theories abound as to the origin of the Native Americans.* Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, was one of several, including Quaker William Penn, who believed that the Indians were Hebrews, descendants of the so-called ten lost tribes of Israel. The explanation accepted by most anthropologists today is that whether by land bridge or by boat, Asian tribes moved into what is now Alaska, Canada, and the United States. Even DNA tests seem to support this idea.
Native American editors Tom Hill (Seneca) and Richard Hill, Sr., (Tuscarora) write in their book Creation's Journey-Native American Identity and Belief: "Most native peoples traditionally believe that they were created from the earth itself, from the waters, or from the stars. Archaeologists, on the other hand, have a theory of a great land bridge across the Bering Strait, over which Asians migrated to the Americas; these Asians, the theory maintains, were the ancestors of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere." Some Native Americans tend to be skeptical about the white man's Bering Strait theory. They prefer to believe their legends and narratives. They view themselves as the original inhabitants rather than as exploring migrants from Asia.
In his book An Indian Winter, Russell Freedman explains: "According to Mandan [a tribe that was near the upper Missouri River] belief, the First Man was a powerful spirit, a divine being. He had been created in the distant past by the Lord of Life, the creator of all things, to act as a mediator between ordinary humans and the countless gods, or spirits, that inhabited the universe." Mandan belief even included a flood legend. "Once, when a great flood swept over the world, the First Man saved the people by teaching them to build a protective tower, or 'ark,' that would rise high above the floodwaters. In his honor, every Mandan village had a miniature replica of that mythical tower-a cedar post about five feet high, surrounded by a plank fence."
The Mandans also had as a religious symbol "a tall pole wrapped with feathers and fur and topped with a hideous wooden head, painted black." Who could this represent? "This effigy represented Ochkih-Haddä, an evil spirit who had great influence over humans but was not as powerful as the Lord of Life or the First Man." For the Plains Indians, "belief in the spirit world was an unquestioned part of everyday life. . . . No major decision could be reached, no project undertaken, without first seeking the aid and approval of the sacred beings who governed human affairs."
In his book The Mythology of North America, John Bierhorst explains: "Before there were clans, the Osage, it was said, wandered from place to place in a condition known as ganítha (without law or order). A traditional view held that in those early days certain thinkers called Little Old Men . . . formulated the theory that a silent, creative power fills the sky and the earth and keeps the stars, the moon, and the sun moving in perfect order. They called it Wakónda (mysterious power) or Eáwawonaka (causer of our being)." A similar idea is shared by the Zuni, the Sioux, and the Lakota in the West. The Winnebago also have a creation myth that involves "Earthmaker." The account says: "He wished for light and it became light. . . . Then he again thought and wished for the earth, and this earth came into existence."
For the Bible student, it is most interesting to see some parallels between Native American beliefs and teachings expressed in the Bible, especially with regard to the Great Spirit, the "causer of our being," which is reminiscent of the meaning of the divine name, Jehovah, "He Causes to Become." Other parallels include the Flood and the evil spirit known in the Bible as Satan.-Genesis 1:1-5; 6:17; Revelation 12:9.
The Native American writers Tom Hill and Richard Hill explain five gifts that they say Native Americans have received from their ancestors. "The first gift . . . is our deep connection to the land." And in view of their history before and since the arrival of the European, who can deny that? Their land, often considered sacred by Native Americans, was systematically taken by force, by trickery, or by unfulfilled treaties. "The second gift is the power and spirit that animals share with our people." Native American respect for animals has been demonstrated in many ways. They hunted just for food, clothing, and shelter. It was not the native peoples who virtually wiped out the buffalo (bison) but the white man, with his bloodlust and shortsighted greed. "The third is the spirit forces, who are our living relatives and who communicate with us through the images we make of them." Here is the common theme of so many religions worldwide-the survival of some spirit or soul after death.#
"The fourth is the sense of who we are, which is expressed and sustained through our tribal traditions." Today this can certainly be detected at tribal ceremonies, where the people gather to discuss tribal affairs, or at social powwows, where tribal dancing and music take place. The Indian dress, the rhythmic beating of the drums, the dances, the family and clan reunions-all bespeak tribal tradition.
"The last gift is the creative process-our beliefs made real through the transformation of natural materials into objects of faith and pride." Whether it is basketmaking, weaving, shaping and painting pottery, fashioning jewelry and adornments, or any other creative activity, it is linked to their tradition and culture of the ages. There are so many tribes that it would require many books to explain all the traditional beliefs and practices. What interests us now is, What effect did the influx of millions of Europeans, many supposedly Christian, have on the Native Americans?
The term "Native Americans" obviously includes those tribes that live in Canada. Many believe that the early migrants from Asia traveled through northwestern Canada on their way south into warmer climes.
# The Bible gives no support for belief in an immortal soul or spirit that survives death. (See Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 18:4, 20.) For more detailed information on this subject, see the book Mankind's Search for God, pages 52-7, 75, and its index under "Immortal soul, belief in." This book is published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
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